Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Van Jones Not Green Jobs Czar ...

Green for All founder Van Jones sent out an email yesterday to dispel some of the rumors and introduce Green for All's new leader, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins.

Jones is headed to Washington as a member of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

"My job will be to help shape the administration's energy and climate policy, so that climate solutions produce jobs and justice for all Americans," he writes. "I am going to be the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation."

He goes on: "I am not going to be any kind of 'Czar.' If anyone were to be the 'Green Jobs Czar' (a position that does not exist), it would and should be Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. She was an original sponsor of the Green Jobs Act of 2007. Obama appointed her as the first Latina — and first green leader — to head the Department of Labor. Can anyone say 'Green Jobs Czarina'?

Also, rumors that I will be handing out big piles of Recovery Act cash are utterly false. Unfortunately. :)"

But that's okay. Even though Jones will not be handing out the money, he notes that the green aspects of the recovery package will put billions of dollars toward the economy and restoring the environment and that his move to the White House constitutes a "dramatic" leap forward for the green economy.